Seasoned ASIOlogists are currently having a keen argument about whether the detention of Parkin has been ordered by the government after a request/demand by the US, or whether it is simply a case of the spooks reviving their role as an aggressive political player, directed against the Left.

There are compelling reasons to think it’s the former. Parkin’s focus on Halliburton is by now well known, but he’s not just any old anti-Halliburton activist – he knows more about the company than pretty much anyone around, and he’s been a key organiser of campaigns against their AGMs and HQ in Houston (see Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton). Halliburton is of course more than
just a company – it’s the company that continues to pay Vice-President Dick Cheney a pension/retainer while he occupies public office.

Halliburton is practically an arm of the government and vice-versa, and it is particularly sensitive at the moment. Why? Hurricane Katrina. Kellogg Brown Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is in the running for huge contracts to effect the clean-up and reconstruction of New Orleans at a time when it is under the gun for overcharging the US government more than $1 billion for services in Iraq.

If the Bush administration has stepped in to silence Parkin, it’s a spectacular own goal for all concerned, since the whole of the Australian public sphere has become a megaphone for Parkin’s anti-Halliburton activities. But just because the idea was stupid doesn’t mean they didn’t do it – it might have been a product of sheer megalomania, or a shot across the bows of activists to show that the administration is going to play dirty in these post-Katrina embattled times.